a beautiful life...

happy {heart} day!

2012-02-17T15:09:00.000-08:00

thank goodness for Pinterest this year! We had so much fun making our own Valentines.

I got Olivia and Ivy's idea from my very crafty friend jane!

I found the bug idea here.

they LOVED their valentines this year! Boston wanted NO business in passing

out Valentines, except one! haha

I took Boston and his friend Jake the night before to pick out something for their valentines.

Oh boy!

I made the kids a yummy French toast breakfast with strawberries and they

got some yummy treats from mom and dad! then off to school where i surprised them

with a valentines lunch.

I went to help out with the twins party, they made their own valentines bags and played a

few games, it was a bit exhausting! then to top it off, i helped with the 6th grade

party AFTER School. It was their very first Valentines party with a bunch of

Wii's set up in different rooms and then pizza, popcorn and soda.

These kids had a blast! sometimes 6th graders are a bit obnoxious,

but luckily i had a diet coke so i was able to hang until 4! ha

cory and i had a valentines day Lunch at Cafe Rio and so we spent the evening

hanging out with our sweeties eating some Papa Murphy's pizza and watching "Dolphin Tale."

Cory made the kids strawberry daqueri's that were Delicious!

we love staying in on Valentines night, it's way to busy out there!

and the winner is...

2012-02-17T14:29:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all the entries for this awesome giveaway!

be sure to follow Hapari on twitter and fb for more giveaways...

Congratulations to...

Hapari swimsuit giveaway!!

2012-02-08T11:35:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year that i LOVE!

swimsuit season is upon us and who doesn't love a "GIVEAWAY?"

i am so loving these new Hapari swimsuits and designs this year and can't wait

to get my hands on them.

here's what you have to do to enter to win...

*****

~go to Hapari's website and see what swimsuit you LOVE

{i am loving the new ruffle cinch tankini}

~ come back to my blog and leave a comment with what one you want

~go to hapari's facebook page and like them!

tweet it and facebook it for more entries!!

{leave an extra comment for fb and tweets so i know}

also to all you local readers... tune in tomorrow on abc 4's "Good Things Utah"

to see the new hapari 2012 swimline!!

on to the tournament!

2012-02-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

Boston's Bantum Basketball team is going in to the tournament

as the #1 seed! woop woop!!

They are so much fun to watch! This is boston's first year playing on

a competitive basketball team and he loves it, he plays daily and practices all the time.

it's fun to see him love the sport so much.

16 years!

2012-02-08T10:57:00.000-08:00

you know you are happily married and comfortable with your spouse when on your

anniversary you would rather hang out at home and watch your fav dvr'd shows

that you have been dying to watch! ha!

we had our anniversary on a friday and also 2 basketball games along with another

one on saturday night at 9pm! Cory is coaching Boston's bantum bball team so

we couldn't miss out on these games.

we decided to spend our "sweet sixteen" doing what we love best! spending it with our kids

and our ultimate fav burger joint! we all love "Sammy's" and since it was early out

we grabbed the kids from school at noon and spent the afternoon together.

the best part about it, is we Loved it! this was one of our fav anniversaries...

sometimes it's best just keepin it real!

"sammy's" is famous for their Pie shakes! My ultimate favorite is their pumpkin pie shake!

run don't walk to their new location in Pleasant Grove.

Their hamburgers are TO DIE FOR!

Ivy dresses herself and this was probably one of my favorites of hers.

performing on stage in her JB shirt! ha

Rick Robinson's "Move" show...

2012-02-01T16:55:00.000-08:00

my little olivia danced with her company team at the Covey Center on saturday night in the

Pre show for The VIBE!

I missed her dancing because i was with my sisters in california, but

Cory was there to support our girl.

i heard the Show was ridiculously AMAZING!

my niece witney was in a ton of the dances and olivia loved watching her.

Liv dances on a hip hop company team along with her jazz petities team.

cory video'd and i about died at how cute it is!

good thing i have such awesome talented friends that took all these

pictures and did her hair for me! haha

thanks jamie and amy!!

this is her Petites company team

{liv is bottom left}

she is the very far left!! so cute

and her hip hop company team. "poppin petites"

{far right}

very far right ::front::

{front right}

cutest one in the middle ::wink::

olivia with some of her dance buddies!!

Sisters Trip 2012!

2012-01-30T18:35:00.000-08:00

Every year my sisters + sister in laws & our mom go on a sisters trip!

usually in the summer but this year we all thought it would be fun to do the first ever

"Tinkerbell Half Marathon and 5K" at Disneyland!

who knew Disneyland would be so much fun without your kiddos? Seriously we had a blast!

the weather was incredible, we even got to hang out a the beach for a bit and shop around.

It was a quick trip but a lot was accomplished!

we ate our favorite spots we love in Cali, like Togo's and of course "Roundtable pizza!"

My beautiful mother was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease a couple years ago and knew she

would not be able to walk a whole lot at Disneyland. So we talked her in to letting us push

her around in a wheel chair! she liked that idea!

good thing too, because we got some front of the line passes!!

my mom was a trooper the whole weekend, we dragged that woman around both parks

and even ran her in the 5K race at night!

luckily we stayed at the "Grand Californian Hotel" so we were close enough

to go up to the room and rest a bit before the race

started at 10:30 PM! isn't that crazy to start a race that late?

It was super exciting to run through all of Disneyland and California Adventure for our race.

Characters were there, along with pirates and tinkerbell, captain hook, peter pan, etc. etc.

so much fun!

my mom said she felt like she was riding a motorcycle between my sister

rachel and I pushing her! haha

yah best motorcycle race of her life!

She even ran through the finish line with a little help! That was Awesome!

i LOVE my sisters!!!

we were missing 1 sister {darla} and 1 sister in law {cassy} boo!

after we played for a bit at California Adventure we went back to our room to relax before the run.

this was right before the race started on main street.

they had 4000 runners for the 5k

& then on 17,000 on Sunday for the Half Marathon

Tinkerbell along with fireworks were lighting up the sky!

breakfast with the characters...

my baby girls...

2012-01-30T16:07:00.000-08:00

My uber talented friend kari with Treasurelayne Photography, took these

pictures of my girls in november and i am in love...

Park City!

2012-01-30T15:28:00.000-08:00

we have had a very mild winter this year and we are DYING! we are the family that

actually loves the snow to come and love our Utah Skiing!!
I love skiing and when the day that all my children are skiing on their very
own i will be oh so happy!

{seems so far away sometimes! ha}

When we finally had the first snow storm of the year {Jan 23rd} we jumped at the

opportunity to take our kids to ski some fresh powder! you can imagine how

excited they were to know that we were skipping school to head to

Park City for the day!

Boston loved that they had the terrain park right next to the lift we
were taking the twins down. This was their first time skiing ON THEIR OWN!

yes, finally they are skiing!!ha

We love Park City!

It's one of my favorite resorts. It's very family friendly with wide open ski runs! It's also

great for my 12 yr old who was bored {after the first two runs} to ski down some

expert runs that were packed with powder!

The weather was GORGEOUS that day {major +} we were all sunburned when we got home!
Utah seriously has the "Greatest Snow on Earth!"

gno!

2012-01-30T15:13:00.000-08:00

I love having girls nights especially when one of our besties is visiting from Boston!!

Jane came out for the Alt. design Summit in Salt Lake, so we stole her

for a night to eat at 'La Jolla groves' and get some pedicures. So fun to

spend some time with her and all these amazing women.

me/susan/jane/becky/caryn/summer/sara

my newest addiction...

2012-01-21T12:19:00.000-08:00

I have always loved a good workout!

but in october when my brother in law Trevor opened up his new

crossfit gym in pleasant grove, cory & i got addicted!

sometimes the workouts are 8 min. sometimes 30 min. but regardless you get
the highest intensity workout of your life in those short minutes.
I've almost puked a couple of times! ha

what is Crossfit? Crossfit is a program that combines various functional

movements into a timed or scored workout!

in 12 weeks i can tell i have become so much stronger, my body is changing

and i am able to RX some of the workouts now! I LOVE IT!

what i love most is it's like your on a team and everyone is cheering you on,

because it is something that is SO hard.

our gym does kids crossfit as well, boston has been doing it and it's so great for kids!

along with many athletes, most Crossfitters follow the paleo diet. I've ordered the book and

am in the middle of figuring out if it's even a possibility! ha

my friends who are doing it say they have ridiculous amounts of energy and

lost lots of weight just in 2 weeks!

today my sister and i teamed up for the 'partner saturday' WOD!

it was awesome!

so if you want to try out crossfit, you can come your first time for free

@Crossfit Hyperion in pleasant grove by sub zero!

like them on facebook for updates!

what are your fitness addictions?
have you tried crossfit?

cheers to new years resolutions!!!

basketball...

2012-01-20T12:23:00.000-08:00

Both my boys have been busy playing basketball! Boston plays on a 6th grade Bantum team

this year and they are dominating! he loves it and plays and practices alot!!

my little hayes just started playing basketball this year. he still doesn't know what to

think of it, it's taken him a while to catch on and get aggressive

but hey he's playing basketball! haha

trevor + mindy

2012-01-09T19:16:00.000-08:00

my sister mindy was a beautiful bride on saturday. the day was perfect, except she

forgot her ring and we had to run to her house about 10 minutes before the

ceremony + her son brody was sick the whole night.

haha... the perfect start to their special day.

it didn't seem to bother her at all, while she was calm and stress free, i was stressed!

they had their ceremony at Noah's and it was beautiful. lots of family flew in to share

their special day with them and they had a great turn out!

lots of friends love these guys!

ivy was her flower girl with olivia and camry walking in front of her. ivy had the basket

of rose petals and was in charge of dropping them. she was so shy that she dropped one or two

behind her as she was walking, i was dying laughing! {i'm laughing while typing this}

it was so precious. she did a good job!

obviously i didn't get great pictures because i had to help her get going.

but the photographer will have some.

congratulations trevor & mindy.

charlee and brody walked her down the isle...

some pictures were taken from my iphone, i loved how they turned out with instagram!

after the ceremony...

trevor + his beautiful bride + new family!

my mom and some siblings...

re-enacting being the flower girl. LOVE HER!!

we're getting all set up for the open house.

these girls loved carrying the back of the dress everywhere she went. haha

gorgeous cousins!

daddy & hayes.. hayes ate like 5 plates of cake! seriously!

boston is not in any of these pictures because he was a stinker and hated getting his picture taken, i'm hoping the amazing photographer {treasurelayne photography} has some good ones. haha

2011 year in review...

2012-01-09T18:14:00.000-08:00

January

boston solved the Rubix cube. haha!
the kids got an extra week off school after christmas break because
their school flooded so we had lots of fun with friends and our cousins.
vibe made it into the semi finals on LIVE TO DANCE!
lots of skiing and sledding and TONS of snow to play in!

February

Olivia has her first dance competition of the season with her dance company "boogie babies".

crush party at the Rhodes. husband and i celebrate 15 years of marraige!

went to LA with my sister to watch my niece

and all the Vibe dancers on Paula Abduls "Live to Dance" finale!!

March

lots of dance competitions, spirit week at school,

Idaho cousins and papa joe and grandma marlene come to visit for their spring break!

6 weeks of "Survival Swimming" for the little ones.

april

{spring break}

We spent 2 weeks with our besties in Hawaii! pretty much the perfect paradise for

us and the kids. I loved getting in some Jenn time!!

Boston entered in the "state fair" and literally picked

out of a hat {so kids couldn't argue about their state} Boston Massachusetts!

how awesome is that?

Tulip festival, Easter parties and Easter.

May

my awesome hubby sent me & the kids to disneyland for my Mothers day present!
i got to spend time with my mom, by bff and her mom! it was like the mothers day extravaganza!!

we loved playing with granums again and were missing them just 2 weeks
after seeing them in hawaii! haha

bid farewell to our beloved Rhodes family who moved to Boston! boo.

the girls had an overnighter at the grand america and the kids had their own individual parties.

we had fun while saying our goodbyes!

the twins start Baseball!!

june

the twins run in their first 1 mile race! lots of bike rides, carnivals, taylor family reunion,

&plenty of pool time... & olivia got to go on the Father/Daughter campout!

awww i love summer!

July

lots of mountain biking, cousins coming to visit, Boston starts rugby,
seven peaks waterpark, alpine splash pad,

4th of july festivities, soccer camp & Boston's 12th Birthday!

august

We moved to Highland, spent a week in california for my niece's wedding,

played at the beach and disneyland with all the cousins.

johnson family reunion, boston finished up a season of rugby, kids start school.

end of summer backyard movie theater with all the neighbor kids.

september

Little miss turns '3' and wants a tangled party.

We took Boston to Boston Massachusetts to a Red Sox vs. Yankee game at Fenway park.

wicked awesome!

Caveman football is in Full Effect & twins start gymnastics!

october

got myself a new iphone {early birthday present} introduced myself to instagram.

we spent fall break with our friends the skousen's in Deer Valley! fall biking,

football playoffs, pumpkin patch, haunted houses, carving pumpkins,

Halloween parties, baking all things pumpkin and Halloween!!

loved having beautiful fall weather for trick or treating!

november

We went to arizona for my niece brynn's birthday & baptism, Thanksgiving with the Taylors,

Lighting of the Riverwoods & a visit with Santa.

lots of preparing for 3 birthdays and christmas!

december

buddy the elf came for the month, hayes & olivia turn 7 and had his & her's parties,

cory turns the big 40 & christmas programs & parties. gingerbread house making, lots of

shopping for our fabulous Christmas day!

2012-01-09T12:16:00.000-08:00

love this quote...

Happy Monday!

New Years Eve...

2012-01-05T06:57:00.000-08:00

we played with the Simpson's all new years eve and had a blast!

we met at 'Malawi's Pizza' {our fav} and then off to the Provo Beach Resort.

The kids were in heaven with all of their buddies, {especially my boston}

The simpson's were our neighbors for a few years in Orem and we always love

hanging out with them when we get the chance.

we went back to the Simpson's and played lots of Ping Pong

and Just Dance 3! {which i rock at btw, haha}

we had a blast ringing in the new year and honestly the kids weren't even tired!

even my little ivy stayed up! ha

Happy New Year!!

i could watch olivia and hayes play JD3 all day long... they are so cute and surprisingly SO GOOD!!

Christmas day!

2011-12-31T19:40:00.000-08:00

We came home Christmas eve night after the Taylor Christmas party to set up for the arrival

of Santa! we were busy making cookies and tracking Santa on Norad all night!

it's tradition for all the kids to sleep in the same room on Christmas eve,

surprisingly the kids all fell asleep fast in Boston's room.

we figured Santa needed some "Diet Coke" instead of milk. ::wink::

and one of olivia's special notes!

it was a Christmas miracle!

kids slept in until 8:15 and we even had to wake up little ivy! {we NEVER do that} haha!

i put cory in charge of the camera while i video taped.

luckily i had my phone on hand to take some more pictures. he was struggling. haha

Boston was stoked to get his new skateboard and kahuna skate stick!

He also got his madden 12 x box game along with some other kinect games.

I made all my kids their very own "Tricot" blanket this year!

we are huge fans of the silky material and they usually try to steal their dads!

I loved how excited they were to get them. made it worth all the work!

Boston's {af cavemen colors} Hayes {byu blue} Olivia {turquoise} Ivy {pink}

don't worry she changed into new jammie's all morning long!

after all the presents were open and things calmed down a bit, they noticed buddy

{our elf} was still here!!

Boston rushed over and saw that he was holding another present along with some

homemade snow since we haven't had snow this year in UTAH!!

Santa always sends our kids on a treasure hunt for one last gift!

reading the clues, {dad was in charge of that too and they were hilarious}

and ending up in the office where they found a Karaoke machine!

yep, we pretty much love it!

we're going to start our own band... watch out!

Olivia's cousin derek {aka aunt rachel} had her this year and made her very own apron

along with a cookbook and pizza kit!

She made us our Christmas breakfast of crepes & has been cooking every day since.

Only on Christmas can you ride a skateboard in the house. haha

"Just Dance 3" was in full effect All Day long!

the one thing good about having NO snow & warmer weather would be that the kids

actually got to ride on their new bikes and skateboards they got for christmas!

i loved that Christmas was on a Sunday! How perfect to celebrate the birth of our savior

by singing praises on his birthday.

we pretty much LOVED having church at 1pm.

we came home and put back on our jammie's on and played games all night!

beautiful, magical Christmas.

the day was perfect!

LOVE looking back at all the magical mornings of christmas' past...2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010,

elf on a shelf....

2011-12-31T11:31:00.000-08:00

do you have an elf? meet our elf "Buddy"

we got our "elf on a shelf" book a few years ago, and my kids have always loved

waking up every morning in december to find where "buddy" is hiding.

this year he stepped it up a notch and did some goofy silly stuff.

they loved it, so much giggling and laughing and excitement to tell their

friends what buddy was doing.

this year was so much fun! here's some pictures of what buddy was up to...

i caught ivy playing with him. haha

zip lining from a candy cane through the front room.

Christmas S'mores.

the countdown to christmas through christmas books.

buddy brought the kids their christmas jammies... "elf on a shelf" jammies! so so cute!!

even boston loved helping out... Cory and I came home late one night and Boston

put the kids in bed and had buddy like this. hahaha

I was babysitting my sisters kids for a week while she was in Florida. so the elves teamed up together. Buddy & Milo in a snowball fight!!

3D movie night!

just hanging out from Olivia & Hayes' birthday balloons!!

Happy birthday to my babies who turned 7!!

oh buddy you stinker...

in honor of Cory turning 40! buddy with a mustache...

buddy on facebook!

doing crossfit on christmas balloons!

one morning he christmas wrapped our bedroom doors! haha

hayes did NOT like that.

christmas morning, he brought ONE last gift that led the kids to a "karaoke machine"

and some snow to make, because we HAD NO SNOW!!

Christmas eve with the Taylor cousins...

2011-12-31T11:00:00.000-08:00

Nana & Papa hosted the Christmas eve dinner and nativity at their house this year!

we ate delicious Texas BBQ and Beans catered from "Al's bbq" in Provo.

DELICIOUS!!

the cousins all acted out the Nativity and my little olivia was Mary this year,

she was so excited.

then the sibling gift exhange was "tie's & pie's" the boys

opened up tie's through a white elephant gift exchange and the girls each took home a pie!!

such a fun idea!

all the cousins opened up their gifts from nana & papa that night and they

all got pajamas! the big boys all got their own sweet BYU basketball shorts.

thanks nana & papa for a fun night!

cousins opening their presents from the taylor cousins...

then nana & papa's presents...

Grandma Hansen's Birthday/Christmas party...

2011-12-31T10:41:00.000-08:00

We had our annual birthday/christmas party for our beautiful grandma. She was made

"queen for the day" that night and was showered with presents & lots of lovin.

She is cory's grandma and my kids great grandma, and she is absolutely amazing.

My kids all adore her and love going to grandma and grandpa hansen's farm.

the Hansen family is so huge that we had to have her party in the cultural hall this year.

Colleen gave a beautiful tribute about grandma and all her life's accomplishments. I loved hearing the kids cheer after each question that was asked to grandma, it was hilarious!!

We love you Grandma dear...

this picture has my heart...

just a little bit of the fam.. haha

we are a HUGE bunch.

The Hansen family is known for the many athletes in the family. Uncles who played football

for BYU and NFL{Patriots}, cousins who played football for BYU and Utah,

Utah Gymnastics team, and gatorade players of the year!

Here is Hayes with his cousin Chase Hansen! {lonepeak quarterback}

soon to be playing for Univeristy of Utah!

boston/chase/cade

Ivy was mesmerized by Santa this year. she told him she wants necklaces. haha

After all the kids got their presents from Santa, it was a free for all to open all at the same time!

Hansen Cousin's Christmas Party!

2011-12-22T16:31:00.000-08:00

Always the BEST party of the Year!

This Year we had it at Heather & Shea's house and everyone brought delicious appetizers

and soup & of course desserts.

we played Christmas "Minute to Win it" games that were TO DIE FOR hilarious! and just enjoyed

hanging out and teaching others about Instagram! {it's my new favorite addiction}

the first "Minute to Win it" game was trying to get a gingerbread cookie

from your forehead to your mouth! I WON!!

another hilarious game was trying to get the jingle bell out of the kleenex box hole!!

that is hard!

cory & randall were crackin me up! cory did some little dance jig that was hilarious!

SO funny!

this was my favorite! you had 2 teams, one person at a time has to put their nose in vaseline

and then touch with their nose a little puffy ball {so you look like Rudolph} and crawl to the end

of the room and hurry and get the ball off with NO hands!

my cheeks hurt from laughing so hard all night!

the last game was catching snowman marshmallows through a christmas wreath!

Wade surprisingly caught 20!!

Thanks Heather P, Shea & Stephen Broadbent for the AWESOME party! hahaha

Cory's turns the big "40"...

2011-12-22T12:34:00.000-08:00

We had a "Real Man" birthday party for cory on Monday!

the day consisted of all "Real Man" activities in honor of him turning "40." haha

9:15 ~ Custom Crossfit workout @ crossfit hyperion in Pleasant Grove

"fight gone bad" was the name of the WOD!

11:30 ~ "Get Some Guns & Ammo" shooting range! we had a good turn out.

apparently everyone likes to shoot guns! ha

Dinner @ 5pm ~"Happy Sumo" {cory's fav sushi spot}

if you know cory at all you know that he doesn't like to make a big deal of his birthday.

But i couldn't help myself. ::wink::

early in the month i emailed a bunch of friends and family and had them email me some of

their favorite memories, thoughts, what they love about cory. I had so many people respond with awesome stories, and cute memories! I sometimes would read the emails while sitting next to cory and burst out laughing! he was always asking me what was so funny!

I stapled them to the 40 balloons and even had extra sitting on the bed so

he saw this when he woke up!

so much fun!

here is one from Olivia, it's precious! I love her little drawings lately and

her people are darling.

Love how long she thinks her hair is!

***Crossfit***

***Get some Guns & Ammo***

{travis & casey are missing, they must have been getting some more ammo}

I came a little bit late with Boston, but when i walked in these boys were like

little kids in a candy shop. So excited to shoot the machine guns!

it was loud and pretty much lasted 1second!

{oh and i got my braces off that morning! Woot Woot!}

***Happy Sumo***

Candy {cory's mom} tried sushi for the first time on cory's 40th! she almost threw up! haha

some people could only make it to the first couple of activities and then some just made it for dinner! It's hard to plan something this time of year, because there is usually something going on every night.

Thanks to all of our besties for hanging out and playing with Cory! He had a fabulous day!

he makes "40" look real good! Happy birthday babe, i hope you feel manly! haha

xxoo

vibe christmas dance.

2011-12-16T21:32:00.000-08:00

miss olivia is on 2 company teams this year & totally loving it!!!

they had their little christmas program for their dance companies to just show off what they

have learned so far. it was darling!!

both dances were so cute and i can't wait until they start performing.

here is olivia with one of her dances.

{olivia is on the far left, red skirt/stiped leggings}

girlfriend lunch.

2011-12-16T16:25:00.000-08:00

we had our 'girls christmas lunch' this year at communal. luckily 4 of us made it. haha we were

missing lots of the besties due to child illnesses. ugh.

but we still had a great time and communal is delicious!

love these girlies!

xxoo

merry christmas!

gingerbread houses with cousins!

2011-12-16T16:19:00.000-08:00

every year we do gingerbread houses with our cousins. they had a blast making

these together!

i love how hayes was wearing his robe the whole night! ha Boston whipped his

together and actually still enjoyed doing it. even if he ate all the candy

off before we got home.

ivy was adorable! she was very into it this year and actually decorated it with style! haha